General Insurance Article - Sales of mnor damage insurance growing

 Smart Insurance, one the UK’s leading minor damage insurance companies, have experienced 26 consecutive months of growth in the number of policy holders despite private new registrations being down 0.2% in August according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

 Smart Insurance’s figures show that more minor damage claims have been processed so far in 2016 than in any other year and an increase in over 25% in claims year on year, as well as an 87% claim acceptance rate by Smart Insurance.
 In the past Smart Insurance has seen a direct correlation between the sale of new cars and take-up of minor damage insurance but August is the first month this has bucked the trend.

 This indicates that increasingly dealers recognise the benefits of minor damage insurance to not only add protection to new cars, but also the positive effect Smart Insurance policies have on vehicle residual values.

 “We’ve had our best August on record,” said Mark Boote, Smart Insurance Managing Director. “According to SMMT private new registrations are down in August with growth in new registrations being propped up predominantly by fleet.

 “This demonstrates that although private registrations are down, overall penetrations in minor damage insurance are up thanks to Smart working with dealers to create a more robust sales process.

 “Smart can’t be sold on fleet so we need to look purely at private registrations. We are not just seeing a rise in policies taken by consumers, the number of dealers tapping in to the minor insurance damage market is growing rapidly,” added Mark.

 “We have a very high claim acceptance rate so in terms of customer outcomes, this shows that the product continues to benefit from a high utilisation rate.”